DODD DEFENDS PARTY'S EFFORT IN CLOSE RACE

JOHN SPRINGER and DAVID LIGHTMAN; Courant Staff WritersTHE HARTFORD COURANT

Responding to criticism that they did too little to help 6th Congressional District candidate Charlotte Koskoff, U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd said Friday that he and his party did all they could to help the Plainville Democrat unseat seven-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson.

The race was so close that Johnson was not officially declared the winner until Thursday.

"I understand [that] when people lose it's painful," said Dodd, the national Democratic Party's general chairman. Dodd was clearly miffed by Koskoff's comments that her party left her hanging financially. "My primary political responsibility went beyond the boundaries of my state," he said.

Koskoff, who lost to a better-financed Johnson by less than 1 percent of the vote, believes another $100,000 would have put her on television and over the top. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee contributed just $5,000 of the $250,000 the shoestring campaign spent.

Dodd said that he does not call the shots as the committee raises and distributes money in congressional races.

"I feel as though we did quite a bit. . . . Nobody had any idea this [race] was this close," said Dodd, adding that he personally called the committee chairman, Rep. Martin Frost, D-Texas, and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D- Mo., to suggest they take a look at Koskoff's race.

"We were trying," said Dodd, noting that he stumped for Koskoff in late October.

In addition to raising more than $50,000 for Democrats running for Congress in Connecticut, Dodd said, he raised $85,000 for the Coordinated Campaign -- a get-out-the- vote operation that provides services such as phone banks, advertising on behalf of the party and joint literature drops.

Although legally such efforts cannot directly use candidates' names in advertisements, money spent on the Coordinated Campaign in Koskoff's district freed up money for her to do her own spots, he said.

"The bulk of Coordinated Campaign money went to the 6th [District race]," Dodd said.

During her concession speech Thursday, Koskoff was careful not to criticize Dodd directly and thanked him for his personal support and encouraging words. She could not be reached Friday, but a spokesman said Koskoff was merely expressing frustration that more financial resources were not sent from the party to a campaign that focused on Johnson's role as chairwoman of the committee investigating ethics allegations against House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

"We have said it was frustrating that we didn't get the money, but hindsight is 20-20," said Koskoff spokesman Paul Seltman, a hired campaign operative on loan from the House budget office.

"The support of the Coordinated Campaign is certainly not the same as money," said Chris Murphy, Koskoff's 23-year-old campaign manager.

Decisions about which campaigns to spend money on are driven by polls, political demographics and the issue of the day, said Republican strategist Ed Rollins, political director in the Reagan White House and former head of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee.

He recalled a major blunder his own party made when doling out campaign money in 1982, when Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, sought money for his race.

"We didn't think he had a chance in that blue collar district," said Rollins.